Introduction

Our petition aims to unify the voices of concerned Europeans,
associations and companies, and calls on our politicians in Europe to
stop patents on software with legislative clarifications.

The patent system is misused to restrain competition for the economical
benefit of a few but fails to promote innovation. A software market
environment is better off with no patents on software at all. Healthy
competition forces market players to innovate.

European court decisions still accept in many cases the validity of the
software patents granted by national patent offices and the European
Patent Office (EPO) that is beyond democratic control. They not only
continue to grant them, but also to lobby in favor of them. Despite the
current deep crisis of the patent system, they are unable to reform and
put at risk too many European businesses with their soft granting
policy.

On 2005 the Commission appeared to be more supportive to the interests
of major international conglomerates than of small and medium sized
enterprises from Europe - who are a major driving force behind European
innovation. The European Parliament rejected at the
end the software patent directive, but has no rights for legislative
initiatives.

Considerations

Studies

Copyright for software, but no patents

Software authors are already protected by copyright law, allowing others
to innovate in the same space generating healthy competition, but this
protection is undermined by patents on software. It is far too easy to
violate patents on software whilst being completely unaware of any
transgression. Software companies do not use and do not need the patent
system to innovate. They must be protected from owners of dubious
granted patents.

Litigation instead of innovation

Software patents miss their legitimate purpose. Patents on software
favour litigation in detriment of innovation, defeating their democratic
justification. They force software producers to spend on bureaucracy,
lawsuits, and circumventing dubious granted claims on software what
would otherwise be spent on Research and Development. Owners of patents
on software, who sometimes doesn't produce software themselves, obtain a
means to exert unfair control over the market.